Help Save This Grand Old Warship: The USS Olympia is a National Historic Treasure

When I was a small boy my father took me and my older brother from our home in South Philly to Penn's Landing in nearby Center City Philadelphia.

On that memorable trip we went aboard the cruiser USS Olympia.

My father, a former Navy chief who served as a frogman in the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) in World War II, used this trip, along with later trips to the Philadelphia Navy Yard and other sites, to instill in me a life-long love of ships, the U.S. Navy, and America, the country these U.S. Navy ships protect and defend.

Now the cruiser USS Olympia is in danger of sinking, but the danger does not come from an enemy fleet. The danger is age - and a lack of money to properly maintain the ship.

The above photo shows the Olympia in fine shape (photo by the National Maritime Initiative), but today the old warship is in bad shape and need of repair, as the below Associated Press piece explains:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0PsoOuekQ1t95NIPVkKHKwR8LYgD9I294EO0

The below link offers details about the Olympia:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hnsa.org/ships/img/olympia2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hnsa.org/ships/olympia.htm&h=378&w=580&sz=69&tbnid=rsx4VRDTm8hcgM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3DUSS%2BOlympia&zoom=1&q=USS+Olympia&hl=en&usg=__eN3A9BP05xHi1_Xya6yHinl9MYM=&sa=X&ei=w3uFTK_TOYT7lwecqPSiDw&ved=0CDcQ9QEwBA

The below link is to the Philly Seaport Museum, which oversees the Olympia:

http://www.phillyseaport.org/ships_olympia_thennow.shtml

I believe the ship is a national historic treasure. I hope the ship can be saved.